Maple Hill continues hot streak

The Maple Hill Wildcats lost three of their first six Patroon Conference boys’ soccer games this season, including a 3-0 setback at Ichabod Crane.

Monday afternoon, the Wildcats hosted Ichabod Crane and knocked the Riders out of a first-place tie with Chatham with a 2-0 victory on Columbus Day.

“We had other losses along the way where we did ourselves in,” Maple Hill coach Dan Gillespie said, referring to losses against Cairo-Durham and Chatham where his team lost the lead late. “We were a little more composed and made less mistakes. It is starting to come together.”

Seeing the young Wildcats raising their level of play, with the Section II Class C tournament just around the corner, cannot be good news for the other contenders.

Maple Hill (8-3, 8-3) controlled the action throughout against the Riders (9-1-1, 9-1-1), getting a goal from Jeremy Oles with 24:18 remaining in the first half and a penalty kick by David Briggs (his team-leading seven goal) with 27:54 left in the second half.

“This felt really good,” Briggs said. “We beat one of the best teams in our league and gave them their first loss.”

Monday’s triumph also represents the fifth straight shutout win for the Wildcats.

“They beat us easily the first time and we had a bad little stretch. This win is good for us,” Gillespie said. “I thought in the first half, we really looked for each other and communicated well. The kids know now they can beat a quality team.”

“We are playing our best soccer of the season,” Briggs said. “We only allowed two corners and our defense held strong against a really good team. This was our day.”